I am 100% all in on this. I fantasize about this kind this stuff as someone who lists soccer as their favorite sport.

I am also cautiously optimistic. I realize many people do not like soccer or want more sports in Omaha, so I hope that Gary Green and the investor group, or potential investor group, can win some people over.

Reasonable stadiums with capacities that suit the USL league are doable for this city. Stadiums with 6-8k seats or 10k.

Real Salt Lake lower division affiliate rendering

Brighton & Hove Albion. Formerly lower division now in the Premier League for 2017-18. Has a large capacity but could be scaled down.

I like the idea, and I think it'd be successful. But the requirement to build a soccer-specific stadium is problematic; they're going to have to play in an existing facility to make this work. Politically, the Omaha metro is past the saturation point on public funding for sports stadiums -- there's still a lot of very vocal people upset about the existence of TDAPO (and Omaha is still paying off the bonds for both the CLink and the ballpark), Ralston is saddled with a boondoggle of an arena, Papillion isn't big enough to fund both Werner Park and a soccer stadium, La Vista is already struggling to come up with the funds for the previously announced youth sports complex...

And all the existing facilities have issues. MECA wants the team to play at TDAPO, but only if they'll back-load the schedule so most of the home dates are after Creighton baseball and the CWS, so that's tricky. Creighton is open to them playing at Morrison, but only part-time (CU would lose the non-profit tax exemption for Morrison Stadium if they have a for-profit tenant calling it home), so that's almost a non-starter. Sharing Werner Park with Green's other team could work, but there's scheduling issues there too with the Storm Chasers' season taking place at the same time. The best bet might be to partner with the La Vista complex -- they're having trouble raising money to get that thing off the ground, but an investment from this team might be enough to get it rolling. That'd make a ton of sense, anyway. Surround the USL stadium with youth fields that could double as practice fields for the team, and you've got a built-in audience right there -- a lot of people in your target audience will be there all the time with their kids for their own games.

This is long overdue. The Morrison Stadium hangup is unfortunate. Stadium is ripe for expansion on the east, south and north sides. Could easily boost capacity to 7k with expansion. But the tax exempt status issue remains.

This league is a definite failure, don't see how they have the balls to expand and try to sucker Omaha into spending money on a stadium. In 2016, out of the 29 teams in the league, only 12 averaged more than 3,000 attendance per game. There were 13 under 2,000 per game, and the lowest 3 were all under 1,000. The Montreal team averaged 243 fans a game. The NY/NJ team averaged 589 a game. Teams in California and Phoenix all averaged under 1,500. All I can say is hopefully good taxpayer money is not wasted on this potential venture, it does not raise the profile of the city.

Alphawalt wrote:This league is a definite failure, don't see how they have the balls to expand and try to sucker Omaha into spending money on a stadium. In 2016, out of the 29 teams in the league, only 12 averaged more than 3,000 attendance per game. There were 13 under 2,000 per game, and the lowest 3 were all under 1,000. The Montreal team averaged 243 fans a game. The NY/NJ team averaged 589 a game. Teams in California and Phoenix all averaged under 1,500. All I can say is hopefully good taxpayer money is not wasted on this potential venture, it does not raise the profile of the city.

Certainly good points. But each of those has underlying reasons.

1. A USL club in Montreal went from USL to MLS. Then another USL club was added unnecessarily, that's why it failed.

2. NY Cosmos. Another USL club not needed in a city with already two MLS clubs.

Success stories you didn't point out. These are teams that prospered at lower level USL and went big time to MLS with investments. 1. Montreal Impact2. Seattle Sounders3. Portland Timbers4. Orlando City5. To some extent, Atlanta and Minneapolis

Current success stories and with teams in cities at similar level to Omaha.1. Louisville2. Sacramento3. Cincinnati4. Richmond

There is a ton to be cautious about, you're right. There are a lot of failures to highlight. And the aggressive expansion nature does have its drawbacks. But if done correctly, this can be successful.

Build a reasonable, 6k stadium mixed with youth soccer partnerships and you might have some backing.

As long as tax-payer money doesn't go into it, have at it and good luck. I'd probably attend a game now and then. Just closed out a chapter of my life where I spent close to 20 years of my life attending my kids' micro - club - select - high school and college games. Still about fourth in order of preference on the list of sporting events I'd go to if I don't have a kid playing, however.